Is my 301 redirect working?
-
Very simple question here . I've redirected a bunch of older pages with decent ranking to some newer pages on my site, using the Thesis theme's built-in redirect function.
However, in the SERPS, the older pages (and, importantly, older titles) still show up. When clicked on, they redirect to the new page, but it's still irritating because the older titles make the site look out of date.
Is this Working As Intended, or have I or my theme done something wrong? And if it's the latter, what's the best way to achieve a redirect, preferably with a Wordpress plugin?
-
Thanks Mike..great instructions to 301 via .htaccess file.
-
hi mike,
thanks for the detailed response. that seems like a pretty solid methodology. apparently resubmitting your old sitemap also helps google to recrawl those old url's..
although this is a bit off the point from the original question in this thread, this is a great Q&A answer from one of the seomoz staff about how to implement sitewide redirects http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/45183/update-url-structure
-
Hi Hugh,
Glad the advice helped
I have run into issues with Wordpress plugins in the past (ones that do various things!) and for important stuff like 301's, I tend to prefer working in .htaccess manually, as I can see what it is happening, and see how to fix any issues easier.
If you run into the issue whereby you are doing massive amounts of 301's, it is sometimes possible to do re-write rules on the URL structure to effect large amounts of 301's, however this can be a bit more involved
Anyway, glad you got it sorted - did you check them with the http header check tool? (there are a few like that tool I linked to in case you prefer others, simply google: http header status tool
And that should give you a few (just letting you know in case you either prefer others, or if that one goes down when you need it ever).
Cheers!
Mike.
-
All done. I added the redirects to the .htaccess directly, and it's now working as it should.
Bonza.
In answer to your question - about 15 pages, so not un-doable by hand.
-
In theory, I agree with you. However, the plugin didn't work, and editing the .htaccess did, so I'm going with that in future!
-
I think that to work directly in the .htacces would not be needed, as that should be the purpose of the wordpress plugin...
-
Hi, I am not Gianluca, but hope you don't mind my input here!
From our own experience, this is what happens:
1) Implement a 301
-
TEST to ensure you get the correct header status (301 permanently moved)
-
Google eventually crawls the old page, and finds the 301 redirect
-
After some time, Google replaces the old URL with the new URL.
Now, as for speeding things up, in my opinion (born out by testing), counter to your idea of adding the new URL to webmaster tools, it is better to get Google to find the actual 301 redirect, before the new url (this way, Google won't see the new URL as a duplicate, before it finds the old, now 301 redirected, URL, which in theory 'could' happen if both pages had the same content/title tag, etc - Although with just 1 or 2 redirects, it is quite unlikely, and should resolve itself pretty quick).
So what I like to do, is try to get Googlebot to the old (301'd) page as soon as possible once it has been implemented (and tested!).
To do this, consider pinging the URL, or pinging your RSS feed (if your site has them) - Tweet about the fact you did a redirect, and link from twitter to the old URL, or even, if you have done some website redesign, write a press release about it, and within the PR, link to the old page... Basically, anything to get google old Googlebot to crawl the old URL< and find the 301 redirect
Others may disagree, but this does appear to work well for us!
Hope that helps,
Mike.
-
-
I like to add the 301's myself in the .htaccess file, with the following format:
Redirect 301 /url-goes-here.html http://www.yoursite.com/url-goes-here.html
Be sure to use that structure (eg. NO http://www. on the old page, but have it on the new page)
Maybe try that for 1 URL, and see if it works for you? - I have to say, be sure to not delete any o fthe other stuff in your .htaccess file! - Best to create a backup BEFORE editing
Remember, when doing web design, coding, or on-page SEO, if anything goes wrong, the worse thing that should happen is that you have to revert back to the bacup that you made before you started
Although if you have lots to do, then you can automate it... various ways to do that!
Really it depends on the context of what you want to do.
Can I ask, how many pages do you want to 301 redirect?
-
Hi Gianluca,
Sorry for butting into this thread, hope you dont mind:
So the process that typically happens is:
1. 301 redirect is implemented but older pages remain in the index and ranking
2. Over time Google will drop the older pages and replace them in their index with the new pages
Is that the process? Is it an exact replacement, and is there a period of overlap when both the new and old pages are ranking?
Also, is it possible to speed up the process by delisting the old URL with GWT and adding the new URL to GWT?
Thanks in advance
-
Wordpress Simple 301 Redirect plugin did NOT give me 301s on the site you recommended. So, for anyone else reading this subsequently - don't use that
However, I then went and just inserted redirects into the .htaccess, and that worked like a charm. Win.
Thanks very much!
-
It was a few weeks ago, and we're crawled pretty frequently. I think my theme is Not Doing What It Should.
-
HTTP/1.1 200 OK. Oh, dammit.
I'm going to try installing a plugin to sort this problem out, and if that doesn't work, I'll be back. Thanks!
-
It can take a while for Google to update - how long ago did you do this?
I would look here: http://www.webconfs.com/http-header-check.php
Enter an old URL, and hit 'Submit' - You should then be taken to a results page, and hopefully will see this:
"HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently => "
If you don't, something is wrong
Try that tool, and copy/paste the result here for everyone to take a peek at - we will then help if we can, as we will have more to go on
Hope that helps!
Oh, and also, consider this plugin for firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/live-http-headers/
-
First question: how long ago did you do the redirect 301?
This is not a stupid question. In fact Google will show the change of urls in the serps (and therefore the new snippet) just after a certain time.
That does not mean that it is not indexing your new pages (try a search with their URL to check this), simply the old ones are still present in the index.
Irritating, yes...
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Console: Change Of Address, 301 Redirects Step Not Working
Hi everyone, We just made a switch to a new domain based on a rebrand, and we are currently directing users who navigate to the homepage of the old site to an interim page on our new site that reads companyname.com/companyname, that then redirects to the actual homepage of the new site, companyname.com. The redirect page's purpose is to tell users about the brand name change before showing them the new site. The challenge is that in the second step of the verification process for the address change, it reads that our domain name request does not correspond because the homepage is directing to this interim page. Is there a way for us to continue to direct people to companyname.com/companyname and have GSC verify that the 301 redirects work properly? Ideally we would not want to direct people from the homepage of the old site to the homepage of the new site. Thank you in advance for your help. Sincerely, Chase VHSpF
Technical SEO | | commcreative0 -
301 redirect relative or absolute path?
Hello everyone, Recently we've changed the URL structure on our website, and of course we had to 301 redirect the old urls to the coresponding new ones. The way the technical guys did this is: "http://www.domain.com/old-url.html" 301 redirect to "/new-url.html"
Technical SEO | | Silviu
meaning as a relative redirect path, not an absolute one like this:
"http://www.domain.com/old-url.html" 301 redirect to "http://www.domain.com/new-url.html" This happened for few thousands urls, and the fact is the organic traffic dropped for those pages after this change. (no other changes were made on these pages and the new urls are as seo friendly as possible, A grade on On-Page Grader). The question is: does the relative redirect negatively affects seo, or it counts the same as an absolute path redirect? Thanks,
S.0 -
How does this rank? - a page that is 301 redirected
How does a 301ed page rank in google? In google I searched for" ikea.ca" which is set up as a 301 redirect to www.ikea.com/ca/en and was surprised to see the url --> www.ikea.ca actually ranking. IKEA Canada <cite>ikea.ca/</cite>IKEA Featuring Scandinavian modern style furniture and accessories. Include storage options, lighting, decor products, kitchen appliances and beds. Bedroom - Kitchen - Living Room - IKEA North York
Technical SEO | | Morris770 -
I need to know more clearance on rel=canonical usage than 301 redirects ?
Hi all SEOmozs, As we all know purposes of rel=canonical , I have a query to ask that If we don't have any possibility to use 301 redirects on a domain , can it be really right to use rel=canonical on an old domain to let search engine to treat those all pages should be not priority where the domain we are being promoted in the market to list up instead that. I found this interesting Matt Cutts video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJK5Uloy76g where he has told or cleared the point very nicely, yes we can use it if there is no possibility in your older domain or pages. So here i am asking the same to know more detailed clarity on this so that i can be more confidence on it. I have been seeing issues in my domains where old one domain comes than new domain why with new domain contents, and can it be really very good to bring new domain with **rel=canonical without using 301 redirect :
Technical SEO | | Futura
Old : kanin.com (leaving) New : kangarokanin.com (promoting) Where i might have not used yet the rel=canonical in old domain, will be going to use it soon , after finishing this discussion.** Regards,
Teginder Ravi tcSnN.jpg tcSnN.jpg dGd34.jpg0 -
Where to put 301 redirects in Magento?
I will be changing the URL structure in a magento store from "base/category/subcategory/product" to "base/product" which means i have to make over 1000 URL 301 redirects so our old links still work. Should i put the redirects in a .htaccess file so they stay intact no matter what or should i just put them in with all the other rewrites (in Magento 's URL rewrite manager)? Thanks
Technical SEO | | tilenkrivec0 -
What should be use 301 or 302 redirection for 404 pages
Please suggest which redirection we should use for 404 pages- 301 or 302. If you can elaborate it with reason then it will be highly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | koamit0 -
301 redirects & merging two sites into one
We have a client that has two sites that rank well for different searches in their market. The main pages ranking are things like advice articles and news pieces. For various reasons, they just want one site. I believe they need to duplicate the content from the outgoing site and place it on the main site, with a 301 redirect from each old page to each new one. What happens when they eventually want to redirect the entire domain? Would these smaller, internal redirects become obsolete, therefore removing any link value they once had? I am not sure how this works or if there is a best practice way to do this. Thanks Gareth
Technical SEO | | Gmorgan0 -
Does 301 redirecting a site multiple times keep the value of the original site?
Hi, All! If I 301 redirect site www.abc.com to www.def.com, it should pass (almost) all linkjuice, rank, trust, etc. What happens if I then redirect site www.def.com to www.ghi.com? Does the value of the original site pass indefinitely as long as you do the redirects correctly? Or does it start to be devalued at some point? If anyone's had experience redirecting a site more than once and they've seen reportable good/bad/neutral results, that would be very helpful. Thanks in advance! -Aviva B
Technical SEO | | debi_zyx0